15 addresses where Kavaklıdere actually eats.
Kavaklıdere eats cold mezes first and fish second, and the evening is long. Tunalı Hilmi runs on patisserie tables all afternoon, then Bestekar Caddesi takes over: twenty-odd mezes at Kuytu Meze & Balık, a 240-label list at Hayyami Şarap Evi, free peanuts with every beer at Beste. Fasıl carries the night out of the meyhanes.
15 addresses across restaurants, bars, and cafes - all in Kavaklıdere.
Meze comes first. Ege Restaurant keeps the day's fifteen or so in a cold case up front, most from the sea, Cretan cheese thick with herbs and octopus with thyme among them. For something else, Rumeli İşkembecisi serves tripe soup all night on Bestekar Caddesi, and Safran Iranian Restaurant runs kababs at the corner of Kızılırmak and Olgunlar.
Cold mezes first on Bestekar Caddesi, then fish off the grill, sea bass sarma and shrimp köfte that regulars order without looking at the menu. Doors open at 4 p.m. and stay that way until 1 a.m.
A cold case up front holds the day's mezeler, around fifteen, most of them from the sea: Cretan cubed cheese thick with herbs, octopus with thyme, sea bass marinated in a light mustard sauce. Aegean meyhane cooking on Büklüm Caddesi, one turn off Tunalı Hilmi. Order the crispy shrimp and stop overthinking it.
Zeki Açıkgöz, who chairs the Turkish Chefs Federation, has cooked in the Lugal's kitchen since 1991 and run it since 2000, and the wood-fired oven does most of the talking. Slow-cooked beef ribs anchor the menu, but regulars keep ordering the kavurma pide and Arnavut ciğeri. Covered terrace out front, private room for groups.
Open all night on Bestekar Caddesi, which matters once the bars around it close and you need tripe soup with garlic vinegar and a squeeze of lemon. The lineage runs back to a four-table soup kitchen in Hamamönü in 1945. Kelle paça, Bursa lamb kokoreç, şırdan and İnegöl köfte fill out the menu.
Small room at the corner of Kızılırmak and Olgunlar, where Vahid, Alireza and Sara run the place between them. Order the kababs or ghormeh sabzi with zereshk polo, then wait for the chay va nabat ritual to close things out. The Iranian families at the next table tell you who fills the room.
Bestekar Caddesi and Tunus Caddesi hold two dozen bars in two blocks. Hayyami Şarap Evi does stone floors, dim light and about 240 labels, while The Soul Pub on Bülten Caddesi keeps a whisky wall but pushes its gin days harder. At Zula Bar on Kızılırmak Caddesi the garden fills once the bands start.
Family-run pub at No. 40 on Bestekar, opposite the Elit Palas, with one of Ankara's deeper single-malt shelves and Guinness on tap. Hakan mixes the cocktails, Tuesdays discount them, and the kitchen keeps it to meatballs and a 21 Burger. Dartboard by the back for the regulars who never leave.
Graffiti covers every wall on Kızılırmak Caddesi, and the garden out back fills once the rotating bands start up. The menu runs beers and cocktails alongside burgers and falafel sets, though regulars keep ordering the chicken steak. Doors open at noon and stay that way past 1 a.m.
A whisky wall on Bülten Caddesi, gin days when the bar pushes its botanicals, and concept days that knock prices down on a rotating drink or dish. The vintage clutter reads more junk shop than showroom, which suits it.
Free peanuts land with every beer, which tells you most of what you need about this Bestekar Caddesi room, a former meyhane now running as a cocktail bar with a gastropub kitchen. Cocktails named "Italian" and "Kiss the Frog" and a bacon burger carry the shift. DJs take weekends; the sidewalk tables take everyone else until 1 a.m.
Stone floors, dim light and a catacomb feel on Bestekar Caddesi, named for the poet-mathematician Omar Khayyam. The cellar runs to about 240 labels, backed by cheese platters and barbecued sausages while a band plays. Regulars order the mulled wine when the weather turns.
Kavaklıdere sits down for coffee in the afternoon and stays. Cafemiz calls itself the city's first cafe, open since 1993 in a two-story house on Arjantin Caddesi with a garden under one big tree. Cafe des Cafes has served on Tunalı Hilmi since 1995 on its original 1950s chairs, and Padam Coffee Shop on Tunalı does Chemex pour-overs of Kenyan and Costa Rican single origins.
Cold drip over ice with a slice of orange sounds gimmicky until you try it here, on Güvenlik Street in Ayrancı. Regulars stick to the dirty chai or a winter sahlep, paired with warm spiced banana bread. The outdoor tables somehow shut out the traffic.
Two floors on Tunalı, the owner trained at Istanbul's Federal Coffee, and the Chemex pour-overs of Kenyan and Costa Rican single origins are the reason to wait. Downstairs is for espresso and talk. Upstairs is for reading, and nobody rushes you.
A Kızılırmak Caddesi cafe that sweats the details, with beans from Turkish roasters such as Izmir's Lot Coffee and a kitchen that runs to breakfast plates and cake. Arrive by bike and the second coffee is free.
A former market on Tunalı Hilmi, serving since 1995 with its original 1950s coffee chairs still doing the work. The menu wanders from Spanish to Mexican to Turkish without much logic, but the vegan deconstructed burger holds up. Order the kahveli klement, a coffee crème caramel, and take it to the back garden.
Ankara's self-declared first café, open since 1993 in a two-story house on Arjantin Caddesi, across Cinnah from Kavaklıdere in Gaziosmanpaşa, with white rooms and a garden under one big sycamore. Order the build-your-own Hayal Salatası, hang a wish on the tree, and stay for the evening piano.
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